Drama Translation Under The Guidance Of "Functionality Plus Loyalty"

Readability and performability are two inseparable features of drama translation. Drama translation has not drawn enough attention from translation studies, which may be due to the duality of readability and performability of drama translation (Baker, 1998). Up to now, there are still disagreements upon the criterion of readability and performability. The author deems that the translation model"functionality plus loyalty", which was proposed by an advocate of Functionalism in German, Christiane Nord, can settle the disagreement and provide some guidance to drama translation. The present thesis is an attempt to explore the guidance of"functionality plus loyalty"model to drama translation. The hypothesis of the research is that under the guidance of"Functionality plus Loyalty"model, a both readable and performable translation of drama can be expected.Functionalism believes that any translation activity must aim at a certain purpose and fulfill a certain function. Based on the skopos theory, Nord proposes the"functionality plus loyalty"model. What she means by"loyalty"is the translator's loyalty to the source text author, the initiator and the text target recipient. The author sets Ying Ruocheng, the translator, the director and the actor, and his Chinese version of Death of a Salesman, as a case, and explores his loyalty to the source text author, the initiator and the target recipient within the framework of Nord's"functionality plus loyalty"model, trying to prove Nord's model is valuable to drama translation.